توضیح رفتار مصرف کننده حامی محیط زیست در سفر هوایی

Some airlines and airports have begun offering a voluntary carbon offsetting service. This article examines the behavior of passengers with respect to their preparedness to compensate for CO2 emissions. Responses from an online-survey of air travelers suggest severity, self-perception, and importance are positively related to willingness-to-compensate. How passengers perceive their self-effectiveness in reducing CO2 emissions does not affect willingness-to-compensate, but influences likelihood of compensating directly.

Air travel is widely acknowledged to significantly impact global climate through the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), including carbon dioxide (CO2). With the inclusion of aviation in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) planned for 2012, the air transportation sector “is about to feel the full blast of regulatory heat” (Turner, 2009). Steps have already been taken to improve aircraft technological but measures to modify air travel behavior remains limited still. Airlines and airports have started offering voluntary carbon offsetting schemes to air travelers. Little is known, however, about the acceptance of voluntary carbon offsetting schemes (Hooper et al., 2008). When it comes to pro-environment behavior the theory of planned behavior (TPB) may offer useful insights.1 Here we use it to look at the factors that affect an air traveler’s willingness-to-compensate for CO2 emissions and whether the willingness-to-compensate affect likelihood of compensating.

This study assessed the influence of consumer-related factors on the willingness of air travelers to compensate for CO2 emissions, and the likelihood of them actually compensating. We find first, that someone’s perception of the contribution of air travel to climate change was shown to have a significant positive influence on willingness-to-compensate. Secondly, we do not find a direct link between perceived effectiveness of individual actions and willingness-to-compensate, which is contrary to the work of Hooper et al. (2008) and others. Third, a positive and significant relationship is found between self-perception and willingness-to-compensate. In other words, air travelers who behave in an environmentally conscious manner in areas other than aviation (for instance recycling) appear to transfer this behavior to their air travel; pro-environment behavior seems to be general across domains. Fourth, perceptions about the importance of behaving ecologically have a positive effect on willingness-to-compensate. Finally, a strong, positive significant effect of willingness-to-compensate on likelihood of compensating is found. Mediation analysis shows that willingness-to-compensate is a strong mediator between the variables and likelihood of compensating, except for perceived consumer effectiveness: perceived consumer effectiveness is a direct predictor of the likelihood to compensate.